Rescued
by Tori7
Summary: ...In which Dorothy and Scarecrow rescue one another. This takes place from the attack of flying monkeys until the end. DxS! Enjoy, and please remember to read and review!
1. Chapter 1

As they made their way to the top of the steps in the main hall of the Witch's castle, the strawman couldn't suppress the guilt he felt any longer. This was his restitution. The Scarecrow would risk anything to get Dorothy out of the castle alive, well, and Kansas-bound. He knew that his two companions, the Tin Man and Lion, felt the same way. They loved the girl and he knew he could count on them to rescue her if he was unable to. What they didn't know was what had happened in the forest…

…When the monkeys had descended upon them, they were driven to split up by the chaos of the attack. The Scarecrow had taken Dorothy's hand without a moment's hesitation, and raced along the forest path at a break-necking pace. She was quick, much quicker than he was, and while she leapt easily over the tree root, he lost his footing and fell to the ground. The Scarecrow was immediately set upon by the monkeys.

They pulled his straw from his clothes, chattering and screeching menacingly. The Scarecrow had hoped beyond hope that Dorothy had kept running, maybe she could meet up with the others who were sure to protect her. His heart sank when he saw her beating away the monkeys with a fallen tree branch.

"Get away from him!" she cried as she furiously freed him from his attackers.

For a fleeting moment, Scarecrow thought they might be safe.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, eyes widened at the sight of her Scarecrow torn asunder.

She tossed the tree branch away and fell to her knees, exhausted and terrified. He sat up and embraced her as best he could in his condition. He felt her shoulders shake with her fresh sobs.

"This is all my fault," she wept.

"It's alright, I can't feel it," he replied. "So there's no reason to worry. Please don't cry, Dorothy. We've got to pull ourselves together and get out of here."

For that brief moment, they held each other fiercely. He took in her scent and the way her head fit so beautifully in the space between his ear and his shoulder. All too soon, however, she was wrenched from him with a blood-curdling scream.

The Scarecrow gripped the attacking monkey by its leg with all of the strength he had, and Dorothy herself was putting up a good struggle. All too soon, however, the commotion drew more of the flying beasts to where they were. They easy pried the Scarecrow's cloth fingers from their comrade and pushed him aside. Two of them seized Dorothy by her forearms and forced her to her knees before a third flying monkey, who seized a fistful of her auburn hair and forced her head back to get a look at her face.

"How will we know if this is the right girl?" asked the Witch's monkey servant. "There were others traveling with her. What if she is a decoy?"

"Look at her shoes, you fool!" exclaimed one of the flying monkeys holding her arm.

"LET HER ALONE!" Scarecrow cried, reaching helplessly out for her, having lost his legs. "Please let her go, I'm begging you!"

The monkeys snickered and chattered noisily in response.

"Look at this sad creature!" they jeered. "A stuffed protector? What next?"

The beast that stood in front of Dorothy approached him and, licking his lips, said in a soft voice:

"We will return to you whatever is left of her when the Witch has had her say." Turning back to his comrades, the monkey said: "Take the girl to the castle."

"Scarecrow," Dorothy screamed. "Don't let them!"

The two monkeys lifted her back by her arms as she screamed, kicking wildly in a futile attempt to free herself. Helpless, broken, and unable to reach her, all Scarecrow could do was call out her name. When her screams faded into the distance, he let himself fall upon the dead leaves with a crunch. He considered his next move. If she was smart (and she was), she wouldn't put up a fight in mid-air, for the fall would surely kill her. The only way to save her was to rescue her from where she had been taken: the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West.

…Now he stood before a door, the dog desperately attempting to dig under it to reach his mistress. Scarecrow feared what he might find beyond the barrier.

"Dorothy," he cried. "Are you in there?"

"It's us!" said the Lion.

The reply they received was the patter of her running, ruby-clad feet upon the stone floor. She assured them of her identity and that she was, as of yet, unharmed.

"Please hurry," Dorothy pleaded through the heavy, wooden door of her prison. "The hour-glass is almost empty, and then the Witch will come for me."

Tin Man made quick work of the door with his sharp axe, and suddenly, as if by magic, there she was. Her cheeks were flushed and wet with fresh tears. Her eyes sparkled with new hope that she would survive the night. And there was something else there in Dorothy's eyes that the Scarecrow didn't recognize.

Dorothy threw herself into the Lion's arms and embraced him. Tin Man scooped her up and held her to his chest. She approached Scarecrow last, and for a moment he thought she was angry at him for failing to save her from the flying monkeys. He felt her hot gaze bore into him and thought he might spark at the look she gave him. He half-expected her to scream or slap him across the face, so when her hands were suddenly cupping his face and pulling him into a deep kiss, he was astounded!

Scarecrow held his arms straight out as if he were once again tied up in the cornfield, not sure where his hands should go, fearful that his companions would scold him. But when he saw them smiling, brows raised as if to say, 'It's about time!', he gripped her so fiercely that he lifted her off the ground and kissed her back intently. If their very survival hadn't been hanging precariously in the balance, he could have stayed like this forever, so he parted from her, placed her upon the ground, and, foreheads pressed together, said,

"To be continued. Right now we have no time to lose!"

Adrenaline once again coursing through them, they dashed back down the staircase hand-in-hand. If they could just reach the door, they would make a clean get-away. In retrospect, the Scarecrow realized that it had been far too easy to enter the castle and that, while he had every intention of getting in, he and his comrades had made no escape plan. The Witch had been biding her time, waiting to trap them and get rid of them all at once. As the Witch taunted them and the guards cornered them, Scarecrow felt Dorothy's grip on his arm tighten, surely thinking that this was the end of the journey. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow had ideas of his own.

The chandelier came crashing down upon the Witch's soldiers. Scarecrow shielded Dorothy's body with his own to prevent the shattering glass from harming her. He wanted to tell her everything, how he would have followed her to the end of the world if she had asked him to that day in the cornfield. Sadly, there wasn't time to make passionate confessions of undying love.

"Let's go!" Tin Man yelled over the noise.

The Scarecrow took her hand in his and pulled her back up the stairs as the Witch beckoned for her soldiers to seize the prisoners. It had been a grand chase, but they were on enemy turf, and therefore suffered the disadvantages of being less familiar with the terrain. Every time Scarecrow turned a corner, he ran into an ambush. It was all he could do to grab Dorothy and turn her hastily in the other direction, praying for a clear path.

All too quickly, the foursome was once again surrounded by the Winkie guards. Dorothy screamed as the soldiers wielded their sharpened weapons. Scarecrow grabbed her by the shoulders and moved her flush against the wall. He circled an arm around her protectively and held her close to him. Scarecrow could feel Dorothy shaking against him. If it was his destiny to be destroyed at the hands of the Witch, he would first do everything in his power to keep her safe.

And then, like the very darkness of the shadows, the Witch entered the room and approached them.

"The last one to go," she crooned smoothly through crooked teeth. "Will see the first three go before her."

Tin Man, Lion, and Dorothy cowered before the Witch, but Scarecrow held his ground. Shielding the girl, he stared defiantly at their enemy and pulled her even closer. He wasn't going down without a fight. He knew by doing this, however, that he would be singled out. Sure enough, the Witch held her broom to the torch above them until it burned with his demise. She cackled as he felt his resolve weaken, and he began to quiver with fear.

"Leave him alone," Dorothy cried, suddenly in front of him with her arms outstretched. "Can't you see he's terrified?"

The Witch cocked her head to the side and burst out with a menacing cackle that rivaled a clap of thunder. Without warning, the Witch held the end of her flaming broom to the hem of Dorothy's pinafore.

Her screams were unlike anything. They were otherworldly. Nothing could have possibly pained him more than the horrifying moans that were emanating from within her throat as she tried to block her face from the flames that licked at her bare legs. That's when he saw the bucket of water. And then many things happened at once...

…The Scarecrow had thrown the bucket of water where Dorothy had just been standing a moment ago, but Tin Man had already thrown her to the ground to pat the fire out with his hands. The water had landed directly on the Wicked Witch of the West. Assuming this would just anger her further and prompt another violent attack, the Scarecrow stood ready to fight until the bitter end. So when the wicked creature began to scream and shrink away before their very eyes, he was shocked (to say the least).

Having put out the fire that had scorched Dorothy's legs, Tin Man grabbed his axe and stood ready to do battle with the Witch's surviving hoard of minions. Scarecrow fell to his knees and took Dorothy's trembling hand in his own. He kissed it fervently, all the while yelling at her,

"What is the matter with you? Don't you have a brain in your head? You could have been killed!"

Silently she met his gaze, tearful and trembling as the soldiers cried,

"Hail to the strangers! The Witch is dead!"

Scarecrow felt Dorothy's hand go suddenly limp in his own, and looked down to find her unconscious. He slapped her flushed cheek and called her name, as did Tin Man and Lion, but she did not stir. As her three devoted friends attempted to rouse her, the captain of the Winkie guards bent over them to have a look.

"Burns will do that," he said. "She is overcome by the pain. Bring her to the Witch's chamber so we can tend to her before she becomes infected."

The strawman didn't move, he just stared down at her. Tin Man, who had waited for Scarecrow to intervene, stepped in when he didn't and lifted Dorothy tenderly from the ground, carrying her off to receive treatment for her wounds.


	2. Chapter 2

…Not only had the Witch's former slaves cleaned and bandaged Dorothy's burned legs, they had also allowed the foursome to rest in the castle, giving them leave to take as much time as they needed before returning to the Emerald City. Scarecrow hadn't gone to visit her in the two days since the Witch's death; he just kept himself cloistered in the tower that had once been Dorothy's prison. He wanted to put himself in her shoes, to try and make sense of what she had done that night. From the impromptu, out-of-character kiss to her reckless sacrifice…none of it made any logical sense. Not that he hadn't enjoyed it…the kiss. It was more than he ever could have dreamed of! But was it love or was it driven by the fact that they were at death's door?

All of this thinking, without a brain to manage it, was draining the Scarecrow. When he turned from the window, determined at last to run to Dorothy's side, she was standing there, quietly watching him. He suddenly felt a pang of shame. What could he possibly say to her?

She was wearing one of the soldier's over-sized uniform blouses, the bandages on her injured thighs visible and blood-stained. Her hair fell down her back in brown waves. She had removed the ruby slippers that the Witch had so coveted, and stood on the cold floor in bare feet.

As he drank in the ethereal sight of her, reality hit him all at once. His lip trembled, and with a sob he said,

"You saved me."

And then she was coming toward him with that scathing look in her eyes, threatening to burn him up on the spot. He closed his eyes tightly to protect himself from the borage of scolding remarks he so deserved, but again she surprised him with her generous spirit. Her arms found their way around his neck, and they just stood there for a while, holding each other as if the other could disappear without a moment's notice.

It could have been years by the time he took Dorothy gently by the shoulders and put an arms-length of distance between them. Scarecrow tried to read her face, fresh with tears but oddly calm and collected. She even cracked a smile for him, and he felt that he ought to beg her forgiveness for his recent neglect on bended knee. But somehow, he knew he didn't have to.

He managed to say instead:

"Your feet are bare. You're going to catch a cold!"

Before she could fully formulate a protest ("We walk through the fields on bare feet all the time in Kansas") he lifted her from her feet and carried her to sit on the thick, stone railing on the observation balcony. Dorothy swung her legs over the edge and Scarecrow kept his arm tight around her waist to keep her steady. They sat quietly for a while as the mountain wind whipped past them.

"I considered jumping, you know," Dorothy said, much to his astonishment. "I thought it would be better to choose my own destiny."

"Thank goodness you didn't. What stopped you, Dorothy?"

"I knew you would come after me. You had followed me so far already, I was sure you wouldn't leave me here."

He turned to face her and hastened to take her hand in his own.

"The minute they took you from me, my path was clear. I would have done anything, anything at all, to come and get you."

Dorothy smiled brilliantly at him. He moved his arm from her waist to her shoulder and rested his head upon hers, gazing out at the barren landscape of the western territory.

"You need to make a point of talking to Tin Man and Lion soon," Dorothy said after a stretch of contented silence. "They've been so worried about you."

"I'm so sorry I've been distant these last few days," said the strawman sheepishly.

"I was wondering why you hadn't come to see any of us. The others told me you must be thinking."

"Well, it's not easy to ponder without a brain, so I'm afraid I've been rather unsuccessful. Once I've collected on the Wizard's promise, maybe some of this will make sense."

After a long while of enjoying the stillness, Dorothy yawned.

"You need to rest," Scarecrow said as Dorothy's feet found their way back onto the cold, stone floor.

Since she absolutely refused to allow him to carry her back to her room, Scarecrow relented, kissed Dorothy's hand, and then looped it through the crook of his arm. They walked slowly to the girl's sleeping quarters. When they reached the door, the strawman wrapped her up in his embrace. She was content to leave him with a kiss on his burlap cheek, but when she turned to leave he found that he didn't have the strength to let go of her hand. Dorothy looked quietly at their entwined fingers, as if considering them, and then met his gaze.

Scarecrow's lips moved, but nothing came of it. Their free hands found each other and he brushed the backs of her soft skin with the pads of his thumbs.

"I wish," he said after a time. "That I had the right words."

"I have them," she replied quietly.

"Then please," he pleaded quietly. "Help me!"

She took his face in her hands.

"There are three of them," Dorothy said, stroking his cheek lovingly. "I've had them since the day I met you, and I have no doubt that you'll find them when you're ready."

Scarecrow was so enthralled by what Dorothy was saying that he had almost completely missed the way her eyes had softly glazed and the way her lips had parted ever so slightly. He may have missed these things completely if she hadn't just then stood on the tips of her toes to softly kiss him. It was shy and beautiful, the way a first kiss should be. It wasn't the hasty, fiery one of the night of the melting. No…that had had the distinct flavor of a last kiss. This was soft and intimate, and it was the most natural thing in the world for the strawman to wrap his arms around her at the waist and shoulders, tipping her back ever so slightly. As gently as it had started, it ended, and with that, she left him for the night. He stared at her door for a moment, searching for answers.


	3. Chapter 3

Scarecrow turned from Dorothy's door to find Tin Man and Lion approaching him. They immediately embraced him.

"We've been so worried about you," the man of tin exclaimed. "Have you spoken to Dorothy yet? She's been so eager to see you."

"Yes, I…um…well I…just did, I think," Scarecrow replied.

The Lion grinned widely.

"She missed you, you know," Lion said, smirk still lingering on his face. "She thought you were mad at her, but I told her that you weren't."

Scarecrow hung his head as they began to walk.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her," he said. "When the Witch lit her skirt on fire…I guess I was still in shock."

"Yes," Tin Man agreed. "It was a frightening ordeal. Dorothy didn't wake up until the next morning and she had a terrible fever. She said a lot of things that didn't make sense."

"Like what?" Scarecrow asked, deeply ashamed that he hadn't been there to help.

"Well, for a while she thought that she was talking to her auntie Em, and was apologizing profusely for falling in the pig pen."

"Yeah," Lion said. "And then she started talking about you, Scarecrow. It was hard to understand her because her fever had spiked by then, but I think I heard her say something about apples."

Scarecrow couldn't help but smile at this.

Dorothy's recovery was shaping up to be a difficult one. Walking long distances, like the one from the land of the West to the Emerald City, would prove a mighty challenge.

"We should leave for the Emerald City as soon as possible. I'm sure I'll manage well enough," she said during the evening meal. "After all, I'll have help." With this she smiled brilliantly at the Scarecrow and took his hand in her own. He followed her dotingly around the castle for the remainder of the day, the same grin plastered on his face.

The return trip had been a disaster! Though they had arrived safely and soundly, the "great and powerful Wizard" had turned out to be a common charlatan. They had been thoroughly deceived by him, and though he was able to grant their wishes to a point, there had been little he could do to assist Dorothy. At first, she had looked utterly devastated, however the Wizard promised to take her home himself, and the great balloon debacle (as it would come to be known) began.

No one had seen Dorothy in the Wizard's palace for several hours. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a terribly pressing problem but for the fact that her departure via the Wizard's balloon was scheduled for that day, and the time was drawing near. It was the Tin Man who had spotted Toto wandering the halls of the palace unaccompanied in the early hours of the morning. Attempting to return Toto to his beloved owner, Tin Man knocked on the door of the suite in which Dorothy had slept, but received no answer. Alarmed, Tin Man informed his companions that Dorothy was not in her room, and so the search began.

Guards were inspecting her chambers, attempting to determine whether or not there had been any foul play involved in the girl's disappearance. The Scarecrow looked on as they turned her bedroom upside down, and found himself feeling extremely troubled. Now that the witch had been melted, who in the world would wish to harm Dorothy? It didn't make sense! He resolved to continue searching for her on his own. There must be somewhere in the palace they hadn't looked! After all, with her legs still bandaged, how far could she have possibly gone? Hand on his chin, he walked away from her room. He could hear the distant cries of Tin Man and Lion calling her name in another part of the palace. If she were in the palace at all, she would surely answer them. It then occurred to Scarecrow that no one had searched anywhere outside yet.

Scarecrow's feet led him to the rose garden. He didn't know why, but he allowed his instincts to direct him. And there she was. He heaved a great sigh of relief at the sight of the back of her head. Dorothy was safe! And beyond safe, she looked relaxed, more so than she had been for several weeks leading up to their trip to the West. She was lying on her stomach, her hair released from the usual braids. She was closely observing one of the red roses, which appeared to have a butterfly sitting upon it, whilst recreating its image on a piece of blank paper. Scarecrow had never known that Dorothy could draw, but it made her all the more likeable.

Scarecrow approached her quietly, not wanting to startle his dear friend or the butterfly that she was quickly sketching. She had heard his footsteps and glanced over her shoulder, smiling.

"Isn't it a breathtaking site?" she asked.

"You certainly are," the Scarecrow replied, returning her smile.

She blushed at this. He hadn't meant to embarrass her and suddenly felt an unexplainable urge to kick himself, but the words had left him without consulting his brain first.

"I'm sorry," he quickly added. "I'm still getting used to my new brains and my mouth tends to run away with me."

At this, her smile broadened and she gently laughed.

"Don't worry about it. I don't mind."

The subject of her portrait now forgotten, Dorothy sat upon her knees and reached a hand up to Scarecrow, who took it and helped her to her feet, kissing it gently. She blushed brightly, but allowed him to keep her hand in his own.

"You have had everyone in a tizzy all morning, you know," the Scarecrow said. "No one knew where you'd gone."

"Oh dear," Dorothy replied. "I didn't mean to cause trouble, I just wanted some time on my own to think."

"Well we'd better let everyone know that you haven't been abducted," Scarecrow said playfully.

He walked a few steps toward the palace, but Dorothy didn't follow. Instead, she turned her gaze out to the maze of hedges that stretched into the distance beyond the rose garden. When Scarecrow turned to ask why she wasn't walking with him, he noticed a strange, far-off look in her eyes that he hadn't seen before. After traveling together for as long as they had, after surviving all of their experiences together, Scarecrow thought he knew her by heart, but this was something unfamiliar, and he found himself intrigued.

If only she knew that he had studied the many ways her eyes twinkled and what to do to make her smile. He had made an art of it, learning how to make Dorothy happy. He had fallen in love with her, no mistake, and after all that had happened at the Witch's castle, he was sure that she knew it, too. Her touch made him grateful for his silly life, and he would have faced a hundred boxes of matches to have enough strength to just say those words. But that new, undiscovered look that she had on her face made him hesitate, and all he got out was:

"Dorothy?"

She turned to him, biting her lip.

"What if we stayed lost for a while longer? Just you and me?" she asked.

He grinned in understanding. This look was mischief.

"Well," he replied. "We do have a few more hours before you're due to leave." He nearly choked on those horrific words.

He took her by the hand, and led her deeper into the garden toward the hedge maze. They walked slowly as the warm sun rose further overhead. She eventually entwined her fingers with his and rested her head upon his shoulder. This was the life! Why had everyone been so worried? Here she was, safe and sound and with her Scarecrow.

They found a lovely spot in one of the corners of the hedge maze with a marble bench and bird bath. They sat down together, listening quietly to the birds' sweet song. Dorothy rested her head once again upon Scarecrow's shoulder. He was used to her touch. She was, after all, a very physical being, always grasping the arms of her companions and taking their hands in her own. However, there was something deeply intimate in the way she rubbed her thumb over his hand, something he had never experienced.

After what seemed like a lifetime and a half, he finally got up the nerve to ask her the question that had been pestering him since she first asked him to lose his way with her in the garden.

"Dorothy, why are you trying to be lost just hours before your upcoming journey back to Kansas?"

She was taken aback by the question, she even looked insulted. Scarecrow was puzzled by her reaction. Isn't this what Dorothy had been yearning for, what they had risked their lives for? She lowered her head and stared intently for a moment and their entwined fingers.

"Why haven't you asked me to stay?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

And there it was, she had put it before him with no way to be roundabout. He decided to take the opportunity. Grasping both of her hands firmly in his own, Scarecrow replied:

"I thought this was what you wanted. All I've ever wanted for you is your happiness. If going back to Kansas will make you happy, then that's what I want for you. But please, if that's not how you feel…"

"All I know for certain," Dorothy said, cutting him off. "Is that I love my family, and I'm determined to see them again. But I also know that I…"

Her shoulders began to shake with a mighty sob and the tears in her eyes spilled onto their joined hands.

"What is it?" he asked. "Oh, please tell me! I can't stand to see you cry."

"It's those darn three words again. They're stuck in my throat," she said with a sniffle.

The Scarecrow steeled himself and decided that this was the moment. Dorothy was a lady through and through, and wouldn't be the first to say it. He slipped his hand out from under hers and moved it to rest on her shoulder, pulling her in close to him. Her breath hitched and she looked directly, hungrily, into his eyes.

"I love you, Dorothy," he said. "I think I have from the moment I saw you coming down the yellow brick road. I know that you love your family more than anything in the world and that your aunt needs you, so no, I won't ask you to stay."

Hearing this, Dorothy hung her head. The Scarecrow hooked his thumb under her chin, bringing her gaze back up again.

"But," he said. "If you love me, I will ask you to keep me in your heart, so that when you're free to give it, you'll be able to find your way home to me."

Dorothy disentangled herself from the strawman, crossing to a nearby rose bush. She fiddled with one of the red roses. Scarecrow couldn't take the silence much longer.

"Please," he said. "Tell me what you're thinking!"

"I'm thinking that I must be dreaming," she said with a broad smile.

Dorothy flung herself into the Scarecrow's arms.

"I love you so much," she said. "And I always will, until we meet again!"


End file.
